Online gamblers have for years relished in the opportunity to grab the best pokies bonuses and highest RTP games. Why could this be? Well, put it this way, it’s free money for the pokies player.

For example, grabbing a bonus might earn you free spins which gives you more free rounds that will gain your chances towards winning a big jackpot. Who wouldn’t want to increase their jackpot chances, for free?

Bonuses and RTPs are all about getting your pokies money worth so it would be stupid not to grab these free money opportunities. At the end of the day, the best paying pokies games offer a better chance of winning higher amounts of real money.

You might be wondering, what is the difference between a bonus and an RTP game? Which one is more profitable and can you integrate both? What is an RTP? How do the bonuses work?

All of these questions will be discussed below so you as a pokies player can determine whether you before bonuses, high RTP games or both.

Q&A

What is an RTP game?

RTP means Return To Player and each pokies game comes with its own RTP percentage. The higher the percentage the more profitable the game is for you. Basically, the pokies RTP is the rough estimate on how much money the player can expect to win back on their bets.

This is why it’s important to choose a pokies game with a high RTP percentage as it increases your chances more significantly, the higher the percentage is.

What is a good RTP percentage?

RTP pokies games vary from 94% to the highest possible RTP, 99%. We recommend that you aim to play on pokies games that have an RTP of 96%. Nowadays, most of the pokies games that are released will be guaranteed to have an RTP between 96% to 98%. This means that an RTP of 95% is considered low whilst an RTP of 99% is considered high. You should always go for the highest RTP as possible if you want to get your money’s worth.

How do RTP games work?

The basics for how RTP percentages work is that the higher the payout percentage is, the better your chances are to win overtime. The game calculates the number of bets all players have done and not how many you as an individual has done.

In short, the pokies game pays out on an average. So, keep in mind that all casino games are a game of chance and some are harder than others to win a lucky jackpot on. The pokies games are normally programmed to the only payout when hundreds up to a thousand spins have been done.

Your main objective if you want to win money back, should be to play on an RTP percentage of no less than 96% and if possible, always choose the pokies game with an RTP percentage of 99%.

Which are the most popular high RTP pokies games?

• Jack Hammer 2 (97.1%)– This pokies game by NetEnt comes with entertaining crimes and adventure theme in comic book style. Here you have up to 99 betting lines to wager on and a wide range of fun bonus features to make the game more exciting.

The one feature to look out for the most is The Sticky Win feature. The Sticky Win feature creates winning combinations and holds them in place for a free spin. The feature continues to hold the winning combinations in place, up until no new wins emerge on the reels.

You also have the Free Spins feature where you have the opportunity to win up to 20 free spins. In your Free Spins bonus round, your wins are also doubled with extra wilds randomly placed on the reels.

• Simsalabim (97.5%) – Another NetEnt pokies favorite amongst the players. This game suits the players who like a bit of magic. Simsalabim is the magic pokies show of a lifetime as the jackpot is only spins away from being won.

The pokies game comes with Houdini style symbols where the Hypnotist is the wild one that will help you to create winning combinations. Keep your eyes peeled for the possibility of landing 3 Bunny Rabbit symbols on your first 3 reels. The Bunny Rabbit symbol triggers an exciting bonus game where you have the chance to pull more rabbits out of the hats to increase your winnings.

There are also Free Spins to gain that can potentially lead you to your big win.

• Retro Reels Extreme Heat (97.5%) – Here you have one of Microgaming’s popular pokies selection. As you can imagine, these pokies have vintage reels with old school feels for days!

The stunning classic Fruit Machine, Cherries, Lemons, Bells, Bars, and 7 symbols will take you back to memory lane where the slot machines first began.

The game is vintage but yet so modern with its many features that you’d expect see from a video slot. The features include bonuses such as up to 20 Free Spins with all of your money doubled. There are also wild and scatter symbols floating about on the reels with re-spin features.

• The Devil’s Delight (97.6%) – Time to dance with the devil on NetEnt’s fiery pokies game. The game has a theme where the visuals are clearly from the devil’s own home, hell. With fiery backdrops, tombstones and 5 reels to bet on, you are in for a ride with the symbols that are representing the underworld.

This game allows you to stack up your wins with the expanding Devil wild that covers all of your reels. The Free Spins comes with a bonus feature where you can win a multiplier of up to x5 your winning amount.

The bonus feature you want to keep an eye out for is the exciting Soul Reaper symbol. The Soul Reaper gives you a chance to correct your sins with the Soul-O-Meter where you can gain your profits. When you manage to fill the Soul-O-Meter with 15 souls, the Sin Spins are activated and you win 10 Free Spins.

• Kings of Chicago (97.8%) – Are you a classic poker player too? Then the ‘Kings of Chicago’ pokies game from NetEnt offers the perfect mix of video slots and classic poker for you.

The game begins with playing with a deck of cards that are shuffled before each round. This pokies game is unique due to not paying out winnings with matching symbols but only when you have a poker hand on one of the 5 paylines.

The featured symbol such as the Joker substitutes all the other cards on the reels. The scatter symbol is a cheeky one and can decide to appear randomly as a surprise during your gameplay. You are then given the opportunity to take home up to 30 Free Spins where all of your wins are doubled.

• Starmania (97.87%) – Ready for an astronomical colors burst? NextGen has created this cheerful color-bomb of a game that is set to make you shoot towards the stars in the galactic.

This pokies game is a true treat for the senses and with all the wonderful wilds stacked on the reels, it will truly boost not only your mood but your winning chances. The free games feature helps to stack even more wilds to create bigger wins on the 10 paylines.

The most exciting bonus feature of all on this game is the that with every winning pay line, you have the chance to gamble your prize for the chance to double or quadruple your winning amount.

• Blood Suckers (98%) – NetEnt strikes again with this vampire-themed pokies game. A true favorite amongst the online casino players. NetEnt was smart to jump onto this wagon, especially considering all the brilliant vampire TV shows the entertainment industry has to offer to society.

Get ready to fight the Blood Suckers off on the reels with a weapon of your choice. The weapon will be the all the special features that the game thrives from.

You have the wild that substitutes all other symbols whilst the scatter pays out Free Spins along with tripling your payout. The Vampire Slaying Bonus game allows you to earn more winning amounts with each creature you slay.

• Uncharted Seas (98.6%) – This visually beautiful pokies game from Thunderkick has a medieval style to it’s reels. The stunning hand-drawn map and mesmerizing sea creatures as symbols will have to want to come for more.

The wild symbol expands the entire reels to ensure you that you take home a bigger win whilst the 50 Free Spins continue to roam the reels waiting to be won.

• Jackpot 6000 (98.8%) – Another popular classic by NetEnt that has an incredible RTP percentage. Here you can travel back to where the old-school vibes were flowing on the 5 paylines.

It’s recommended to play on the maximum bet to trigger the Supermeter mode. There’s a mystery prize to be won where you can increase your winning amount with up to an extra 6000 coins when 3 Joker symbols land on your reels.

Here’s the catch and why we recommend playing on the maximum bet. With 1-8 coins the games RTP goes to 74.9% – 79.2% whilst if you play with the 10 coins your RTP goes up to 98.8%.

• Mega Joker (99%) – Here we an extremely high RTP game from NetEnt that comes with another vintage theme. This game works similar to Jackpot 6000 where it’s recommended to bet with the highest coin to ensure that you are playing with the highest RTP possible, 99%. If you play any lower your RTP goes down to a staggeringly low amount of between 76.9% to 89.1%.

How do casino bonuses work?

There are a lot of bonus offers floating around on the internet. It may seem difficult which or what to chose as most online casinos have promotional offers constantly running.

The basic bonus offer that you will find are; cashback, deposit bonuses, free chips, free spins, and welcome offers. For example, the welcome bonuses will be based on a matched percentage of the amount you choose to deposit.

Online pokies tend to also place limits, a maximum amount you can earn from bonus offers. For example, if an online casino is offering a 100% bonus match up to $300 and you deposit $150, this means that you will be entitled to a bonus of $150.

Keep in mind that this does not mean that you get to take the money out as a winning amount. The welcome offer T&Cs normally state that you need to use the money on their games. So, in this case, you get free money to play with.

The most important advice we can give is to always, very carefully read the terms and conditions as different bonuses have different rules such as;

• There’s a time limit
• There’s a set date
• There are only certain games you can play on

To avoid disappointment before agreeing to a bonus, read the T&Cs so you know what you’re agreeing to.

Is it possible to play on a high RTP game and claim a bonus?

The short answer is, yes. You don’t have to choose between the two which means you can make the most out of the money you bet on your games by playing on a pokies with the highest RTP of 99% and claiming the bonuses on the game.

Remember, you don’t have to always pokies with an RTP of 99%, you can still win jackpots on games that range from an RTP of 96%. Bonuses will help you to gain free money or free spins that will help you to avoid further spending, you are basically getting as many freebies as possible. Who doesn’t like free stuff?